overcompensation
Americannoun
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a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
-
compensation to an unnecessary or unreasonable degree.
The pay was overcompensation for the work done.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of overcompensation
1915–20; over- + compensation; as psychoanalytic term, translation of Überkompensation, coined by Alfred Adler
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He wore Kendall’s clothes and practiced self-doubt and the art of overcompensation.
From New York Times • May 31, 2023
The overcompensation only compounded the pathos of the imagery from his arraignment.
From Salon • Apr. 6, 2023
"It is important to recognize that the grandiose projection of self-importance in a pathological narcissist is overcompensation for extremely low self-esteem," explained psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee in an interview with Salon.
From Salon • Jan. 26, 2023
But what passes for humor in “F9” are self-referential one-liners about invincibility and overcompensation, often delivered by Gibson’s Roman, that fall as flat as a pancaked police car.
From Washington Post • Jun. 22, 2021
After what I’ve been through, some overcompensation is to be expected.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
